Authors' Journeys

Laurel Bradley

I've been writing since before I could write. I've been telling myself bedtime stories since I was a child. I didn't actually put pen to paper, other than school assignments, until I had children. I tried writing children's story when oldest was small. Anthropomorphism was out and reading level was key. It wasn't my genre. I finally started writing seriously when I was on bed rest with my fifth child. I completed six manuscripts (seven if you count the children's book) and tried to publish. For ten years. I got the normal slew of nice rejections, but never a contract. Last year, I decided was tired of waiting for things to happen. I needed to either quit or make things happen. I went to a conference on publication and found it was geared for non-fiction. They said none of the information translated to fiction. Still it taught me one thing. That no matter who publishes an author, the author has to promote. So, I published A Wish in Time with iUniverse. Since then several of my manuscripts have made the final round in contests and one, Crème Brulee Upset, was picked up by Wild Rose Press as the result of a contest.